When I arrived for the Hub Summer School Deep Democracy training on Friday morning, I bumped into the host Sophia who I had met on skype through the Hub database 2 years ago when we talked about Sustainability Education within the first stages of the project Future@School.

Sophia is now part of the Urban Farming Team at Hub Rotterdam (see pictures of the salad balcony garden here) and is currently developing an Urban Farming Toolkit for people’s urban homes.

This would be a normal day at the Hub for a Host.

Is this YOU? Hub Brussels is currently looking for a host. email: brussels.hosts@the-hub.net for further information!

Hi Simon,
Am sitting on the train from Rotterdam back to Berlin coming from a Deep Democracy course at Hub Summer School. I have just read a few lines about Role Theory in Deep Democracy and then I turned to your article that has been open in my browser for a few days now.

Our attempts to practice positive mutiny last summer in Berlin was very present in my Deep Democracy experience in the past two days.

When I arrived in Rotterdam on Thursday evening, I borrowed two Deep Democracy (The Deep Democracy of Open Forums and The leader as martial artist) books from Moraan and flipped through them just before going to sleep and my burning question was all of a sudden very present for this course, again: how can become more democractic?

And this question again, is very much connected to what you write in this article and there is a connection to the practice of self-selected leadership (that I have experienced in Pioneers of Change, OpenSpaces, Art of Hosting) or rotating leadership (as you can experience in the circle practice). A paradigm shift is happening when system are transforming into self-organizing systems (living systems such as Pioneers of Change or the Art of Hosting community) or as Role Theory from process-oriented psychology and Deep Democracy is asking how can we make roles (in the Deep Democracy terminolgy, a role is: a view, an emotion, a sensation, an archetype) more fluid and how can a group by themselves avoid getting stuck in roles?

I have never really written poems but I took the task in and wrote some verses that do not actually rhyme but tell the story of my walnut experience:

Spending Time with a Walnut

Spending eight minutes with a walnut.
From the circle to the roof.
After the rain there is sun in Amsterdam.
Will I crack the nut?

There is smell of food.
I want to eat the nut.
Solitude quality time with a walnut.
Up on an Amsterdam roof.

What can I learn from the walnut?
Being strong outside and soft inside.
Being strong, though vulnerable.
I am cracking the nut!

Welche Saat für eine bessere Welt hast du ausgesät und was hast du bis jetzt geerntet?

Die Ernte des Gartenstudio in Kreuzberg:
Wir machen seit ein paar Jahren eine Kinder-Kochschule. Dieses Jahr gab es z.B. eine Kooperation mit Prinzessinnengarten, wir haben zusammen einen Schulkurs “Gärtnern und Kochen” angeboten, und waren jeden Mittwoch mit einer Klasse der Hunsrück-Grundschule im Garten am Moritzplatz.

Die Kochaktionen sonst sind auf Strassenfesten, oder auch Eröffnung des Tempelhofer Feldes. Die Kinder können spontan Basilikum zu Pesto verarbeiten und im Glas mit nach Hause nehmen, oder die eigene Pizza ausrollen, belegen und backen – und natürlich aufessen!

Es geht darum, etwas selberzumachen, dabei Gartenkräuter zu verwenden und dass es aus eigenem Antrieb getan wird.

Die Früchte solcherlei Aktionen fließen in die Gesamtgestalt der Gesellschaft als einer zukünftigen Sozialen Plastik ein.

Wir verschenken 3 Exemplare der neuen Ausgabe (weitere Infos ganz unten).

FROH! ist ein Gesellschaftsmagazin, das besondere Ereignisse des Jahres aufgreift und sich neugierig auf die Themen und Fragen dahinter einläßt:

„Wer den Acker im Herbst nicht stürzt, hat seine Ernte zur Hälfte gekürzt“, so will es eine alte Bauernweisheit. Was das heißt, wissen wir auch nicht so genau. Und da fängt es schon an, unser Heft.

Denn wir sind keine Bauern, sondern Stadtmenschen. Wenn die Luft abkühlt, legen wir nicht den Kopf in den Nacken, kneifen die Augen zusammen und lesen den Himmel. Wie morgen das Wetter ist, kann uns egal sein. Zur Not fahren wir mit der Bahn zur Arbeit. Wahrscheinlich können wir nicht mal Weizen und Gerste voneinander unterscheiden. Die sind auch überhaupt nicht gut für unseren Heuschnupfen.

Dachten wir. Aber bei der Auseinandersetzung mit dem Thema wurde uns klar, dass wir uns in den letzten 200 Jahren, auf dem Weg von der Agrargesellschaft ins Informationszeitalter, so weit gar nicht bewegt haben. Je weiter wir gruben, desto mehr zeigte sich, dass wir tiefe Wurzeln geschlagen haben. Das Bild, etwas auszusäen und dafür den Ertrag zu bekommen, ist uns vertraut. Es erinnert an unsere Anpassungsfähigkeit und Abhängigkeit. Es steht für den Wert unserer Arbeit und berührt unser Gerechtigkeitsemp”nden. Auch wenn unsere Hände nicht mehr in der Erde wühlen, schlägt unser Herz höher, wenn wir etwas wachsen sehen.”

Die Ernte ist ein wichtiger Bestandteil unserer Arbeit als Hosts im Hub, denn unsere Mitglieder pflanzen mit ihren Ideen für eine bessere Welt eine Saat, die sich dann durch das Teilen und Verknüpfen mit anderen Ideen vermehrt. Die Hosts sind die Gärtner…

Welche Saat für eine bessere Welt hast du ausgesät und was hast du bis jetzt geerntet?

Schreibe uns einen kurzen Blogbeitrag (gerne mit Foto) und die ersten 3 Beiträge können ein FROH! Exemplar ernten. Schick’ deinen Beitrag bis zum 31. August an: berlin.hosts@the-hub.net

Topic: Entrepreneurship Now! What it takes to set sail.

Focus: The internal process that makes people become entrepreneurs!

We had the pleasure of hosting three young entrepreneurs from around Europe:

Chrysosthenis Taslis from Greece, who had just started an olive oil production and retail business on his home-island Lesvos. He is aspiring to be The Best Oil Producer, in the full sense of what we call green on our website: responsible in the environmental and social sense.

Silje Grastveit from Norway. She is the founder of the Hub in Bergen, bringing this global network of people, ideas and spaces into a society where the need for social entrepreneurship is a relatively new idea yet. In sync with our efforts, a Hub serves to inspire and support people realizing their idea and business.

Jonathan Klodt from Germany. He is the co-founder of the Malamut Team Catalyst consultancy, assessing and matching the entrepreneurial and collaborative talents of individuals and working teams. The start-up just won the support of the EU and German government for research spin-offs.

To read the full harvest, click here

The theme of the evening was HAPPINESS.

We started off with a design product from 2005: The Fresh Surfer (surfing in your toilet!) by Alessi.

In that year, this little toilet surfer was given away as Christmas presents to family and friends – and made them happy. Why? Because it was design? Or looking like a toy, its playful image?

In this discussion, 2 design questions cristalized:
- How to design happiness?
- Is design always happiness?

Ahmet came to one conclusion in his presentation that “the opposite of happiness is satisfaction” and what, if we were looking for customer happiness instead of customer satisfaction?

Frauke talked about food and happiness: introducing a service design project (menumenu) and a design thinking project (The Food Revolution on OpenIdeo).

At some point, the food conversation landed at the Hub Sexy Salad when we talked about preparing food being a catalyst or social currency supporting human connections which makes us social beings happy!

Here are some highlights of the program:

- Discovering the market of social businesses in Berlin with the help of some professionals
- Dinner workshop on homelessness with special guests
- Working with case studies of real social business examples, for learning about how to start your own initiative
- Creating together a visual map of the Journey, with photos, videos, and experiences
- Involving the online community for generating more knowledge and ideas together
- Getting feedback on the participants’ ideas from the representatives of an organization that deals with social innovation projects

Read on…

- Thanks to Max from Hub Madrid we’re hosting MBA students for IE Business School for 6 weeks as they partner with local Social Enterprises

- 2 Hub Milan members came to town and are now collaborating on a project with a Joburg member

- A Rework participant is in town from Ghana and now obsessed with setting up a Hub at home; she sang the praises of the Hub Rework team

- While flipping channels the other day, I stumbled on Deaf TV and they screening a documentary of Sencity. My team and I went to this event in Joburg a few months back hosted by Hub Rotterdam members (Hub Berlin team went to Sencity Berlin in July!)

- Recently, I hosted a lunch to launch the eCampaigning Forum South Africa on behalf of a Hub Islington member only to find that the room was filled with previous Hub users who were in town for our 1 Goal campaign on education for all and headed up by our president

There is no better encouragement for me to keep working away at what we’re creating. Keep on sending your fantastic members over!

Thanks everyone…. and Viva Espana!
Lesley
(Hub Johannesburg Co-Founder)